Publisher’s Note: It’s impossible to imagine what would happen to global society if somehow the Internet were to become dysfunctional, or just “untrusted,” overnight. And yet, as Venafi CEO Jeff Hudson points out this week, this is not just possible; it’s also likely, unless we take steps now to improve Net security.

Our members will be reading this Special Letter in the same week that Bruce Schneier has raised the question of whether a specific nation (he suggests it may be China) has been probing Net infrastructure companies in patterns that suggest planning for a future, massive attack on the Net itself.

Not long ago, I asked Vint Cerf, the “father of the Internet,” about his views on its security. Without a moment’s hesitation, he pointed out that security had never been part of its design. More recently, he has been suggesting a new version of the Net, one that has security “baked into” its fundamental engineering principles and architecture.

When some of the smartest security people in the world are telling us that the Net itself is at risk, it’s time for us to pull our collective heads out of the sand and do something, before the inevitable inevitably occurs.

Our members will want a deeper understanding of why the Net is at risk, and what they, and their companies, can do about it. – mra.